This invention relates in general to automobile wheel working accessories and in particular to a new and useful device for pushing wheel flange hubs or splined flange hubs of motor vehicles out of shaft bearings.
The invention relates to a device to push wheel flange hubs or splined flange hubs of motor vehicles or the like out of shaft bearing press-fitted in a bearing cylinder which has, at least at one bearing face, and an annular groove for the accommodation of a snap rig, and includes a pressure member supported by the bearing cylinder and actuatable by screw threads.
In one known device of this kind (German GM 84 34 762), the pressure means used to pull the wheel flange hub off a double row ball bearing of the bearing cylinder consists of several threaded studs which are screwed into axial, tapped holes in the flange of the wheel flange hub and are supported by a radial surface on the face of the bearing cylinder. Since it is not possible to turn all threaded studs uniformly and simultaneously, it is also impossible to prevent canting of the wheel flange hub with these means. Therefore, these means are most inadequate for the proper removal of the wheel flange hub from its ball bearing.
Also known already are devices to push shaft ends out of press-on-bearing rings or the like (French Pat. No. 959,338) in which there are guided, so as to be axially and radially movable in a cylindrical sleeve concentric to the sleeve axis, several clamping sectors which can be tightened by means of a spreading cone screwed into an internal thread of the outer sleeve so that their ends opposite to the spreading cone grip like hooks behind the ring to be pulled off, or that internal, annular beads of the clamping sectors engage an annular groove of a bearing ring. The sleeve end opposite the internal thread is provided with an inside cone, against which the clamping sectors support themselves in order to be moved radially inward upon an axial motion. The spreading cone itself also has a coaxial, threaded bore, into which a pressure screw is screwed, by means of which the axial pressure required to push the shaft out can be exerted upon the face of the shaft end.
Because no possibility is provided in these devices to bring any kind of supporting elements into form closing engagement with the bearing cylidner, they cannot be used for the purpose of the invention.
In another known device to pull ball bearings, bearing bushings and bearing rings or the like out of their seats and housings there are disposed on a crossbar supporting feet which are diametrically opposite each other in relation to a threaded spindle, are radially adjustable and can be placed on the rim of a part from which e.g. a ball bearing is to be pulled (German Pat. No. 857 329). The threaded spindle has at its lower end a collet whose neck has an internal thread in engagement with the thread of the threaded spindle and whose expansion legs can be spread apart by a spreading cone. The spreading cone has a long shank which penetrates the hollow threaded spindle and whose upper end has a thread which protrudes out of the upper end of the threaded spindle and can be tightened in axial direction by means of a nut sitting on the upper face of the hollow threaded spindle. The threaded spindle itself is also provided with a tightening nut supported by an annular bearing of the crossbar.
While this device is capable of pulling annular parts out of holes, such devices are not suited to push wheel flange hubs or splined hubs out of shaft bearings of a bearing cylinder of motor vehicles.
In another known device of similar kind (U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,540), serving to pull out an annular seal consisting of a metal ring and an elastic ring and sitting in a cylindrical hole and surrounding a stub shaft, a pulling tube is provided whose front end has spreading fingers which taper down in radial direction, are relatively thin and have hook-shaped gripping shoulders which can be pushed through the elastic ring. Seated in this pulling tube is an axially movable spreading sleeve whose end protruding out of the spreading fingers has a conical expansion and whose opposite end has an internal thread into which a threaded bolt is screwed whose wrench head is seated on the face end of the pulling tube. By means of this threaded bolt the spreading sleeve can be moved axially relative to the pulling tube so that the spreading fingers can be spread apart. Seated in the threaded bolt itself, which has a coaxial, tapped hole, is a pressure screw whose end protruding out of the threaded bolt has a wrench head and its opposite end a pressure transmitting part which can be placed on the face of a shaft surrounded by the annular seal. This device is not suited for the purpose of the invention either. The same applied also to other pulling devices serving to pull press-fitted rings or ball bearings out of hollow shafts, tubes or the like (U.S. Pat. No. 2,031,938). This device has a supporting bell which can be placed on the face of the tube out of which the ring or ball bearing is to be pulled. Freely rotatable in this supporting bell is a threaded spindle whose lower end has a spreading cone, and its upper end, protruding out of the supporting bell, has a butterfly nut sitting on a counterbearing surface of the supporting bell. Seated on the spreading cone are two diametrically opposite spreading fingers which have hook-like gripping elements projecting radially outward and able to grip behind the ring to be pulled out. These spreading fingers have radial angular parts with holes penetrated by the threaded spindle. Above and below these two angular parts are theaded nuts, by means of which the axial position of these spreading fingers on the threaded spindle can be fixed.
Apart from the fact that all known devices cannot be used for the purpose of the invention, they have the additional drawback that their spreading elements are tailored to strictly define diameters and that, for this reason, they cannot be adjusted to relatively wide diameter ranges.